


we'll ride and glide

by yuchi



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Fluff, Human Experimentation, M/M, Outer Space, Science Fiction, Superpowers, gays... IN SPACE
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-13 08:15:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28650387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuchi/pseuds/yuchi
Summary: Yukhei has been across the universe and back, but the galaxies in Jaemin's eyes are the only ones that he wants to explore.
Relationships: Na Jaemin/Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas
Comments: 24
Kudos: 46
Collections: Challenge #4 — Awaken The World





	we'll ride and glide

**Author's Note:**

> the title is from rocket 69 by connie allen. the lyrics have nothing to do with the fic, it just slaps LMAO
> 
> enjoy!

Their new rescue looks gaunt, tired in the way only escapees from the facilities look. Yukhei knows the feeling all too well—when he took his first breath outside the walls of the Galaxy G-14 Experimental Station, his lungs had filled with adrenaline, exhilaration at finally having escaped from the saccharine-sweet nurses with their white teeth and even whiter uniforms. 

After the first few hours of wandering through the wilderness, though, the excitement wore off and hunger set in. Say what you will about the Experimental Stations, but they kept you fed three times a day.

“He's awfully silent,” Kun muses beside him, arms crossed as they surreptitiously eye the new rescue from the entrance of the cafeteria—Jaemin, Yukhei remembers. To his knowledge, Jaemin had gone for days without food and drink before he was found, and hadn't spoken a word since. In that respect, Yukhei can't fault his reticence; he must be in shock, or worse.

All the others took dinner—or what passed for dinner, according to the ship’s day-night cycle—at the correct call time, so the new rescue is the only one at his table at the moment, a pitiful grey blob in the cavernous room. So he can avoid sitting with the others, Yukhei suspects. He's staring out the floor-to-ceiling window, spoon held aloft but unburdened by the soup in front of him. 

“Taeyong is going to throw a fit if he sees untouched food,” Kun remarks. 

“Give him time,” Yukhei responds, watching Jaemin seemingly come to life and pay attention to his bowl. “I mean, it's only been a week, and he spent most of it in an infirmary bed with a needle in his arm. He needs to adjust.”

Kun nudges him with a shoulder. He's too short, so he only catches Yukhei's bicep. “Go over and talk to him,” he suggests, tilting his head towards the occupied table. “He seemed to like you. You're the one that found him, after all.”

Distinctly, Yukhei can feel a flush creeping up his neck. Kun isn't entirely wrong—he _was_ the one that found Jaemin in the mountains that bordered their new rescue’s particular Experimental Station. He had drawn the short stick for that month, tasked to survey Galaxy N-13 for escapees; Jaemin was dying of dehydration, curled up at the base of a tree. Yukhei never could have brought him back to the _Splendor_ if not for the heat signature reading device Kun insisted he bring.

Doing all of that doesn’t mean Jaemin _likes_ him. Maybe on a superficial level, just because Yukhei was technically his rescuer—but he found Yangyang and Chenle, too, and everyone on the ship likes him, anyways. Or so he'd like to think.

“Did he ever say what experiment was done on him?” Lucas responds, just to deflect.

Kun shakes his head. “He didn't really _say_ anything when we talked to him,” he answers. “Just nodded. Or wrote things on a pad. I think he's too traumatized to talk.”

“Poor thing,” Yukhei breathes, eyes wandering towards Jaemin once again. “We have to help him.”

“That's what we do,” Kun says with a smile, rubbing a hand across his back. “Talk to him. I think he'll be more receptive to you—you already have that connection.”

“I think I will,” Yukhei resolves, squaring his shoulders. “Wish me luck.”

Kun beams encouragingly up at him. “Good. I'll be at the bridge if you need me.”

The planet system they're cruising through is painted with swirls of white and pink—stars and galaxies in the distance, in clear view of the triple-paned quartz window in the farthest wall of the room. Orbiting the nearby ringed planet are two moons, yellow and gray, almost close enough to see each crater on their surfaces. Jaemin seems transfixed, watching constellations shift and shimmer right before his eyes.

“Hello,” Yukhei starts pathetically, sliding into the seat in front of Jaemin. 

The rescue snaps out of his daze; Yukhei is greeted with a small, shy smile that makes his heart skip a beat. “Hello,” Jaemin mouths.

Yukhei tries not to let his surprise show; it's not _speaking,_ really, but it's more than nothing. It's progress.

“How are you finding the _Splendor?”_ he asks softly, so as to not disturb the relative peace and quiet. Speaking loudly as he always does seems... inappropriate. Jaemin is no scared animal, he knows, but it's good to be careful all the same.

Jaemin grabs something beside him—a tablet and stylus, given to him during that first day. He scribbles something on the tablet, pushing it across the table for Yukhei to read: “Everyone is nice.”

He laughs at that, pushing the tablet back towards Jaemin. “I'm glad we're treating you well. Are your lodgings okay?”

Jaemin wipes his tablet clean. “I've never had such a big room all to myself.”

“Couldn't be farther from the one room in the Experimental Station,” Yukhei agrees. “It was large, yes, but sharing it with all those other children… I always felt claustrophobic.”

Jaemin nods enthusiastically, hand moving across his tablet with haste. “I don't think I'll ever get used to it.”

“In time, this place will feel like home to you, just like it does to me.”

Jaemin is smiling, now, subdued and thoughtful. “I think it will.” He wipes the tablet again, writing something with careful strokes, this time. “I never thanked you for rescuing me.”

“It's what we do here,” Yukhei shrugs, but he feels that familiar flush on his neck again. “We're just glad we found you in time.”

If Yukhei weren’t observing him closely, he would have missed the shudder that goes through Jaemin’s spine. “Me, too. I don't think I could have taken one more day in there.”

Yukhei's brows furrow in sympathy. He escaped years ago, but the experiments were difficult to forget: the sharp _tick-tick_ of the doctor flicking the needle of a syringe swirling with dark liquid, the unbearable pain as his body changed in response to the serum, the endless days spent in the too-white observation room. Those damn nurses feeding him lie after lie, making him believe he would be with his parents again soon. 

He supposes everyone has their breaking point. Luckily, Jaemin was found before he reached his. 

“If it’s okay for me to ask…” Yukhei starts carefully. “What was your experiment?” He knows it's sudden—callous, even, especially for a topic such as this, and especially this early on. Not everyone is as open as Yukhei is, and as evidence shows, Jaemin is the complete opposite. 

Jaemin seems to think the same thing, because he's eyeing Yukhei up and down—sizing him up, clearly. He freezes under Jaemin’s scrutiny, praying that he somehow measures up to whatever metric the new rescue is using. 

Apparently, he passes, because the lines of Jaemin's shoulders relax. Just when Yukhei thinks he's going to pick up his tablet again, he hears something. Not really _hears_ it—it feels like his inner voice more than anything, but sounds nothing like it.

 **They made me do** **_this,_ ** the voice says. _Jaemin’s_ voice, but he’s not really speaking.

Then it clicks. “You’re telepathic?” Yukhei says in awe.

Nodding, Jaemin stashes the tablet beside him. **If that’s what we’re calling it. I can read minds, too.**

“Is that why you don’t talk to people?”

 **I don’t want to hear what they think of me,** Jaemin confesses. **The nurses at the Experimental Station… they thought I was weak.**

Yukhei shakes his head in protest. “You escaped and survived, all on your own. That’s not weakness.”

Jaemin smiles again, now looking straight at him. Yukhei is inordinately proud that he made that happen. **Not just on my own.** Jaemin leans forward, animated in his curiosity. **What about you? What did they do to you?**

“Well…”

Yukhei surveys the cafeteria. Kun has long since disappeared, and the serving area where Taeyong usually stations himself is empty; there’s no one to disturb them. He breathes in deeply, letting energy spread throughout his body, his limbs welcoming a thousand pinpricks of heat that only he can bear. Yukhei closes his eyes. 

When he opens them, the room is in complete darkness, save for the constellations swimming in the emptiness outside reflected in Jaemin’s dark irises. His eyes are blown wide, wondering at the vastness before him; transfixed, he drifts towards the window, laying a palm flat on the glass.

Pulled by gravity, Yukhei follows. They stand side by side, unable to look away from the wondrous sight stretched endlessly before them.

“It's beautiful, isn't it?” Yukhei prompts, voice quiet.

 **Yes,** Jaemin answers sincerely. He shifts, and the backs of their hands brush against each other. Yukhei retracts his own, electrified, but Jaemin seems too awestruck to notice. **You can control light?**

“I can.”

Jaemin finally tears his eyes away from the window, head tilted up to look at Yukhei. It's a little unnerving, hearing him speak but not speak, but it's a novelty only Yukhei can relish. For now, at least. **Do you do this often?**

“When I'm alone, yes.” Yukhei smirks. “Or when I have someone to impress.”

Smiling, Jaemin turns back to the window. **It's amazing. Nothing like the facility—the Experimental Station was too…**

“White?” Yukhei offers.

**Yes. Too bright. Blinding. I could never really rest.**

Yukhei nods in sympathy. He remembers that even with his eyes closed, he could only see white. “I'm glad you ended up on a spaceship, then. No shortage of darkness here.”

Jaemin grins wide, mirth carving itself into the lines beside his eyes, the slight scrunch of his nose. Yukhei decides he likes this smile best. **Have you been there?** he asks, pointing at a faraway blue-violet galaxy. 

“Yes… K-72, I think. It's where we found our mechanic, Yangyang.”

 **And there?** A swirling mass of green, this time. 

“Only for fuel stops. But right next to it is B-14—another Experimental Station.”

**There must be hundreds of them.**

“If not thousands.”

 **And you save them all?** There's a hint of doubt in Jaemin's voice, if it can be called that. **The experiments?**

Yukhei pauses, unsure of how to answer. It's often a topic of debate on the crew, if they're doing enough—some would say they already do what they can with what little they have, others would protest that they could be doing more. Yukhei falls either squarely in the middle of the argument, or nowhere at all. 

“We know that we can't, but we _do_ try to rescue everyone we can,” Yukhei starts carefully. “Any galaxy without the equivalent of the Milky Way’s Declaration of Helsinki, we’re there. It would be ideal, though, wouldn't it? If there were no Experimental Stations at all.”

Jaemin nods. He turns to look at the cafeteria behind him as though expecting someone to creep up behind them, satisfied when he sees that it’s empty. **If you've rescued so many experiments, why are there only so few of you on the ship?**

“The others that were here before you wanted a new home—to start their lives over, so they change their names, and we do what we can to make them survive in other systems,” Yukhei explains. “The ones on the _Splendor_ chose to stay.”

**And why did you?**

“She's the first place I've ever called home,” Yukhei admits. “And to be honest, I could never give up this view.”

 **I think I could get used to living on a spaceship,** Jaemin muses. **And to think a week ago, I never would have imagined that I would be traveling through space…**

“It's not as glamorous as it seems,” Yukhei laughs. “Weeks of rationing, avoiding quasars, getting stranded in the wrong galaxy because we forgot to fuel up…”

 **Anywhere is better than** **_there._ **

Nodding gravely, Yukhei looks straight into Jaemin's eyes. “I couldn't agree more.”

Jaemin smiles again, and—his hand wraps around Yukhei's, soft fingers brushing against his calloused palm. Lightyears away from the small touch only a few minutes earlier. **Thank you again.** His not-voice sounds heartbreakingly genuine. **Without you, I never would have gotten to see this. Or thought that there was more to life.**

Throat dry, Yukhei can only nod and squeeze Jaemin's much smaller hand in his. “You don't need to thank me.”

 **Maybe so. Maybe not yet—there's still a lot you have to show me, if you're willing.**

Yukhei would elect to do anything, he thinks, if it would make Jaemin happy. “Of course I am.” 

**Good.** Jaemin smiles once again, relieved at his answer. **Let's be free together.**

Yukhei has been across the universe and back, but the galaxies in Jaemin's eyes are the only ones that he wants to explore. “Together,” he repeats, letting a smile of his own fill the darkness of the space between them.

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading! thank you as well to the mods that made this round of alw possible.
> 
> [twt](https://twitter.com/1999LlNE) • [ko-fi](https://ko-fi.com/yuchi)


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